Who Is This Pharaoh?Other than the name of Ramsees and that he 'knew not Joseph', we are not given much direct information concerning the identity of this Pharaoh. Those who consider that the 'Shepherd Kings' (by the way the term 'Shepherd Kings' is a mistranslation and though they were Shemite, they were not quite shepherds as were the family of Jacob), the Hyksos, were in power during the time of Israel and Joseph coming into Egypt, often now set forth that this is when the power shifted back to a more truely ethnic Egyptian character. And while through the mixed marriages of politics as was arranged even for Moses with the Etheopian Princes, one cannot over look that the movement from the Shemite 'Shepherd Kings' to the truer Egyptian nature likely also included a Shemite element.In Joseph's day, he married Aseneth, the daughter of a priest of the Egyptian kingdom, but this was a Shemite priest as per the Hyksos Pharaohs. But the various 'old' Egyptian Royalty lines within the Egyptian Kingdom were still privailant in the Hyksos Kingdom, the Etheopians for example. Now just as the Shemite Pharaoh before Ramsees of the days of Moses was caused to marry into the 'old' Egyptian Royalty and thus began to continually settle back into the 'older' Egyptian ways, so was it prepared for Moses to so marry the princess of Ethiopia, which he had done while a princely member of the court of Pharaoh. But the real surprise is that the daughter of the earlier Pharaoh who had retrieved Moses from the river and preserved his life by making him her son, was in fact not of the Hyksos Shemite Pharaoh line, but she was daughter to one who was a male descendant from Joseph of Egypt. We know this from the inspired translation of the Bible provided by Joseph Smith when that text is read carefully and with understanding. For the Lord said unto Joseph of Egypt that Moses would be considered as being of the House of Joseph, being the daughter of Pharaoh. And through the laws of 'adoption', this made Moses to be of the house of Joseph by adoption of the daughter of Pharaoh though by blood birth Moses was a Levite. Note what the Lord states to Joseph when speaking directly to him concerning the promises and prophecies He did reveal unto Joseph directly concerning the matter. The Lord speaking back and forth concerning Joseph Smith who was to be raised up in the latter-days and Moses who would physically be the means of delivering the people out of Egyptian bondage, the Lord states speaking directly to Joseph of Egypt concern the House of Joseph and those who would so descend from it:
Now 'because' (for the reason of) Moses being claimed by the King's daughter and formally called and recognized as her son, a prince in Egypt, Moses would be known to be of the House of Joseph. This is because the King (Pharaoh) and therefore his daughter were of the House of Joseph, being one of those politically arranged marriages which likely by right of the wife brought the position of being Pharaoh to one of the descendants of Joseph of Egypt. Yet as we are told this Pharaoh 'knew not Joseph', meaning to say he did not hold to any of the Shemite nor Hebrew traditions of 'his fathers', but he sought after the ways and benefits to the 'older Egyptian' order into which he married and fell, becoming a hardened Egyptian Pharaoh, no longer concerned with his ancestray connection to the Hebrews. In fact after having been raised in the Palaces of Pharaoh for so long, this descendant of Joseph was more Egyptian than he ever was Hebrew, which heritage he totally rejected even to giving the command to slay all the Hebrew male babes in order to keep the 'Shepherds' from overcoming the high society of Egypt, which he had adopted as his own, being long since shamed to be connected to the Hebrew Shepherds in any way. In short, this 'son' of Joseph who had become Pharaoh, had turn completely from his Hebrew heritage and he did totally adopt the culture and prestige of the Egyptian way, he himself being made Pharaoh after a sequence of 'opportunistic' marriage arrangements. This knowledge and/or dissected theory has supporting evidence in that the King's daughter who brought forth Moses from the river did call him by a name according to her own Hebrew tongue, Moses, meaning in Hebrew 'drawn out of the water'. And that it caused no problem whatsoever to easily accept Moses into the family of the king as 'family' for though Moses was Hebrew, so was the house hold of Pharaoh Hebrew genetically but not culturally, politically or in any way connected to the 'shepherds of Goshen'. In fact this Pharaoh, a descendant of Joseph, was so Egyptianized that he turned against the Hebrews in a most vicious and exploitatory manner. He used them, taking them away from their herds for much of the time by making them to make brick and build up the kingdom of Egypt. Another indirect evidence of the House of Pharaoh being of Hebrew descend is the occurance of the circumsision of the sons of Moses prior to their return to Egypt with Moses. Now Moses would have already been circumsized in the course of being a member of the 'Hebrew' related family of Pharaoh. Such circumsision was the covenant of Abraham, and though for the most part for all intensive purposes, Pharaoh had rejected his Hebrew brethren yet his household must have still practiced certain Hebrew rites such a circumsision, for Moses was already circumsized being a member of the House Hold of Pharaoh and only he sons who had been born after the custom of the House of Jethro which was not of the House of Abraham, had not therefore been previously circumsized until upon traveling to Egypt with Aaron in conformity with the traditions of the Covenant of Abraham. |
